Carl Kurtz Nature Photo: Compass Plants

Thursday

Jul 25, 2013 at 10:13 AMJul 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM

Aldo Leopold wrote his book, "A Sand County Almanac," about a single compass plant, or cut-leaf silphium (its genus name), in the corner of an old graveyard. At the time, he believed it to be the sole surviving plant in the western half of his Wisconsin county. He went on to write, "What a thousand acres of silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." While we don't have 1,000 acres of silphiums with bison, compass plants are thriving by the thousands in restored prairie plantings. Perhaps, in time, we will get to see his vision. Contact Carl Kurtz at cpkurtz@netins.net. Photo by Carl Kurtz/Special to the Ames Tribune.

Aldo Leopold wrote his book, “A Sand County Almanac,” about a single compass plant, or cut-leaf silphium (its genus name), in the corner of an old graveyard. At the time, he believed it to be the sole surviving plant in the western half of his Wisconsin county. He went on to write, “What a thousand acres of silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked.” While we don’t have 1,000 acres of silphiums with bison, compass plants are thriving by the thousands in restored prairie plantings. Perhaps, in time, we will get to see his vision. Contact Carl Kurtz at cpkurtz@netins.net. Photo by Carl Kurtz/Special to the Ames Tribune.